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First programmable electronic digital computer — Tommy Flowers

1944 AD · Transmission: Global
ComputingTechnologyInventionBritish

Tommy Flowers, an engineer at the Post Office Research Station in Dollis Hill, designs and builds Colossus from a plan by Max Newman to automate cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher (distinct from Enigma). Unlike Turing and Welchman's electromechanical Bombe, Colossus uses 1,500 thermionic valves to perform Boolean and counting operations at electronic speed, and is programmable via switches and plugboards to adapt to different cryptanalytic tasks. It enters service on 5 February 1944 at Bletchley Park. The concept that changes relative to the Bombe is not 'breaking ciphers' in general, but the architecture itself: it is the first computer that is simultaneously electronic (not electromechanical) and programmable.

InstitutionPost Office Research Station, Dollis Hill / Bletchley Park
Historical regionEngland
Primary sourceSmall, A.W. — "The Special Fish Report" (December 1944), operational description of Colossus
Secondary sourceIEEE Engineering and Technology History Wiki — "Milestones: Code-breaking at Bletchley Park during World War II, 1939-1945"; The National Museum of Computing — "Colossus"
Original languageEnglish
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